Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Avs look to end the slide in Dallas

The Avalanche will be playing the Dallas Stars for the second time in less than a week tonight at 6:30 MST in Dallas. The Avalanche look to turn things around, coming off of their fourth straight loss. Times have been tough without both Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

The boys in burgundy have been struggling to get off to a good start in recent games. They have only scored two first period goals in the last four games. Combine that with some untimely and fluky goals allowed, and the Avs have arrived at 8-4-2 battered and bruised.

Tonight’s game is the second of four games against the Dallas Star in the 2019-20 campaign. These divisional matchups will prove vital in grasping home ice advantage, something that Joe Sakic and Jared Bednar have put forth as the regular-season goal for the Avs.

FORWARDS

Tyson Jost - Nathan MacKinnon - Joonas Donskoi

Andre Burakovsky - Nazem Kadri - J.T. Compher

Matt Nieto - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Matt Calvert

Valeri Nichushkin - Vladislav Kamenev - Jayson Megna

DEFENSE

Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson

Ian Cole - Cale Makar

Ryan Graves - Nikita Zadorov

DALLAS STARS

So far, the Stars have been a team that is hard to read. On paper, they look like they could be one of the more dominant teams in the west. They brought in some veteran leadership and grit in Corey Perry and Joe Pavelski to bolster some already predominant leadership offered by Jamie Benn. They have quality young defenders in John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen, and Vezina nominated Ben Bishop to boot. Still, they find themselves under .500 as we move into November. What gives?

I’d say a lackluster start from Bishop is the most telling phenomenon of Dallas’ early-season woes. He currently has just four wins in eleven starts.

NOTE: Stars leading point-getter, winger Roope Hintz, was not on the ice for Dallas’ morning practice.

In fact, Mike Chambers reports that Hintz will be out with Injury for tonight's matchup.

FORWARDS

Denis Gurianov - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov

Jamie Benn - Jason Dickinson - Joe Pavelski

Mattias Janmark - Justin Dowling - Corey Perry

Andrew Cogliano - Radek Faksa - Blake Comeau

DEFENDERS

Esa Lindell - John Klingberg

Jamie Oleksiak - Miro Heiskanen

Joel Hanley - Taylor Fedun

GOALTENDING

Expect Phillip Grubauer in the net for Colorado and Ben Bishop in net for Dallas. This divisional game is far too crucial for the Avs and Stars to not go with their ones.

Grubauer has looked sharp to start the year but has given up some less than ideal five-hole goals in recent games. Let’s hope he can sure that up a bit against Dallas.